Begrudgingly, haltingly, always up for any excuse to get out of it… I go to the gym for treadmill + strength exercises three times a week and Zumba once a week. I get no halos or gold stars for this; I spend every minute looking at the door and counting down the minutes. My favorite part is walking out into the parking lot and singing, “We’re done! We’re done!”

I just know I have to do it. I’m almost 65, and I want however much longer I am on the earth to be lived as free of health problems and aches and pains as possible. This is what I have to do to make that happen.

My studio practice has “gotta-do’s” also. The studio work itself is just about always a “wanna-do.” I could live happily in my studio creating all day and every day. I generally have more ideas than I have hours. (Right now there are three major works I am just itching to begin.) But, because I take my artwork seriously, and because I want to have opportunities for it to be seen, I make myself do a certain amount of marketing and promotional work regularly. This year, I set a for myself a goal to apply to more juried exhibitions, both those in the quilt community and all-media shows.

Applying to exhibitions is a lot of work. The works need to be photographed. The digital images need to be organized. Supporting documentation (size, medium, methods, price) for all works needs to be up to date.

And did I mention artist statements? If I just heard a thunderous “ugh,” it would be from any artmakers reading who understand the difficulty of writing and keeping artist statements. I have them in different lengths for different purposes and adjusted slightly for different audiences. Creating these is a lot like being made to eat your peas. (As a kid, I used to suffer mightily over eating peas. I think I sat at the dinner table chewing a single pea for an hour once. Oddly, I now love peas of all kinds!) But, the process of writing artist statements really is satisfying once it’s done. It’s been very helpful to me to clarify thoughts about my work and what it’s about. (Sometimes in only thirty words!)

So, I am truly proud to have had some success this year with exhibition entries. I made myself do it! I have applied to six. One rejection. Five acceptances. At the end of this post I’ve listed the places I will be showing. If you live near any of them, I invite you to the shows to take a look at all the artwork. Each exhibition should be interesting.

Now I have one more gotta-do for this weekend: building two shipping boxes!

Thank you for reading! Writing my blog is a “wanna-do” task for me, mostly because of the people who are nice enough to read along and then to send me such interesting questions and comments. THANK YOU! -- Bobbi

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